Colossians 1:24-29

Paul now shifts his focus to his ministry to the church.  Paul rejoices in his sufferings for the Colossians.  It is weird for us to think of rejoicing in our sufferings.  We will see that Paul’s view of suffering for the church is very different than ours.  Just like in everything else, Paul’s focus is on Christ.  He says he is filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church.  Does this imply that Christ’s afflictions were lacking?  Definitely not!  I think what Paul is saying is quite profound though.  As Christians, we are the body of Christ.  Christ lived a life of hardship and sacrifice for our sake.  He died a horrible death to bring us to life.  When we as the church become the body of Christ, we inherit His affliction to some degree.  In order to bring the good news of life to the world, the Body of Christ must sacrifice itself like Christ sacrificed His body while on earth.  Paul sees His ministry as being according to the stewardship from God given to him to make the word of God fully known.  This is not Paul’s ministry, it is God’s ministry, a part of which He has entrusted to Paul.  This is huge when it comes to ministry!  We tend to make ministry personal.  When we succeed it is awesome for us and when we fail or hit a rough spot, we are depressed and feel like failures.  If we look at it as God’s ministry and affliction as us sharing in the afflictions of Christ, this should completely change the way ministry works.  Our focus needs to be on God and not ourselves.  Paul then calls the word of God a mystery hidden for ages but now revealed.  Why was the mystery hidden for so long?  I don’t know and may never know, but the bottom line is it has been revealed to us now and that should prompt a response.  Our lives should be focused on explaining this mystery to those who have not heard it yet!  Paul states that God has chosen for the saints to make known how great the glory of this mystery is among the gentiles.  This mystery is Christ in us, the hope of glory.  This really is a mystery.  We had no hope and then Christ came into us and now we have a hope.  This is profound!  Often we take it for granted, but this is a huge truth!  We are to proclaim Christ, teaching everyone with all wisdom.  It is important to use wisdom when sharing the gospel, but that doesn’t mean to be selective.  We are to proclaim Christ to everyone!  Not just our neighbors, not just Americans, not just people in far away countries, we are to proclaim Christ to everyone!  I don’t believe Christians should have the approach of having been called to a particular area.  We are called to proclaim Christ to everyone!  This is obviously impossible on our own, but it is possible for the full body.  This is the ministry for which Paul toils, struggling with all his energy that God powerfully works in him.  Paul is energized by God to be able to minister.  This does not mean he has it easy.  He says he toils, struggling with all his energy.  God apparently gave Paul enough energy for ministry, but not any more than enough.  Even with God’s help, it is an exhausting struggle for him.  This is a little scary, but also really encouraging!  If you are worn out and burnt out, it’s okay!  Even Paul struggled and was worn out.  Instead of looking at how effective you want to be for Christ, compare how effective you are with Christ to how effective you were before Christ.  When you do that, you should see the impact of the energy that God powerfully works within you.

Colossians 1:15-23

 Colossians 1 continues with Paul talking about the preeminence of Christ.  He is the image of the invisible God.  This is huge in my opinion.  There is so much about God we can’t know.  We can’t see Him, we can’t physically touch Him.  Christ was the image of the invisible God.  Who Christ touched, God touched.  What Christ said, God said.  Jesus Christ is our physical example of the character of God.  By Christ, everything was created.  Everything includes things on Earth and in heaven, things visible and things invisible, thrones, dominions, rulers, and authorities.  All things were created through Him and for Him.  This implies that there is a vast spiritual world out there which was also created by Christ.  Sometimes I wonder what this world is like.  Christ is before all things and in Him all things hold together.  He is the head of the church.  He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent.  This passage emphasizes the importance of Christ.  It explains how He was from the beginning and controls everything.  In fact, creation exists because of Christ and for Christ.  I think the name Paul has for Christ, the firstborn from the dead, is interesting.  We think of Christ being the only son of God.  We don’t think of him as being the firstborn from the dead.  This implies that there will be others bon from the dead.  Christ had to be raised from the dead in order for us to be raised from the dead.  Paul says the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Christ and through Him, to reconcile all things on heaven and earth to Himself.  When I first read this I wonder what in heaven had to be reconciled.  The thought I have on this is that nothing in heaven had to necessarily be wrong.  Creation was unable to reconcile itself with heaven.  Christ came to Earth and was fully man and reconciled us to Him.  He was also fully God and as such heaven was also reconciled to Him.  So through Christ all things were reconciled to Him.  Through Him we have access to God.  Paul continues to say that we who were once alienated are now reconciled in His body through His human body and human death.  We are reconciled so He can present us as holy and beyond reproach.  This comes with a condition though.  We must continue in the faith, stable and steadfast.  We can’t shift from the hope of the gospel, which has been proclaimed in all creation.  Not only does Paul say that the gospel has been proclaimed in all creation, which is significant, he also says we must not shift from that hope.  Does this mean it is possible to lose our reconciliation?  I honestly don’t know.  My personal belief is that we cannot, but passages like this don’t sit quite right with me.  Anyway, these are my thoughts.  Whether they are right or not I don’t know.  I just hope I don’t lead anyone in the wrong direction who reads this!

Colossians Intro

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything!  I fizzled out in Exodus and got busy with wedding planning.  I have been reading Colossians recently though so I’m gonna try to go through Colossians on here now.  We’ll start with Colossians 1:1-14.  My format will be less structured with these.  I’m changing everything up!  Paul identifies himself in the beginning of this book as an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.  His apostleship has nothing to do with who he is or what he has done.  He is an apostle because of the will of God.  Timothy is also writing this letter. 

The recipients of this letter are the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Collosae.  Collosae was the smallest church written to by Paul.  It is located east of Ephesus and was mostly known for its wool trade.  Paul wrote this letter while in prison in Rome.  He probably wrote it about the same time as Ephesians and Philemon.  All three letters were delivered by the same people.  There was a false teaching going around at this time which basically undermined the power and authority of Christ.  Paul was writing this letter partly to set them straight.  The preeminence of Christ is one of the major themes of Colossians. 

Paul finishes his introduction with the greeting, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father”.  He establishes God as our father and attributes both grace and peace to Him.  We are four lines into the book and Paul has already attributed grace, peace, and his apostleship to God. 

Paul begins his letter by praising the Colossian church.  He lists all the reasons he is thankful to God for them.  He is thankful to God because of their faith in Christ and for the love they have for the saints.  He attributes this faith and love to the hope they have laid up for them in heaven.  This is significant for several reasons.  Once again, Paul attributes the Colossians faith and love to the Father.  Secondly, the Colossian church was apparently known for their faith and their love for their brothers.  Their motivation is their hope laid up for them in heaven.  If we ever find it difficult to have faith or love others, we might want to evaluate what our hope is placed in.  Is it placed in affirmation?  Attention from our friends and family?  Do we hope that we won’t feel guilty if we love others?  Or do we love because of the hope we have in Christ.  Is our focus on things of this world or on things of heaven.   The Colossians were placing their hope in heaven and Paul was thanking God for that.  Paul then states that this hope comes through the word of truth, the gospel.  The gospel came to Collosae as it was coming to the whole world.  The gospel was bearing fruit and growing around the world as people were hearing and understanding the grace of God in truth.  When our faith is healthy, we should bear fruit.  Often we look at fruit as only the visible “proof” of our faith.  We ignore the entire purpose of fruit.  Fruit is designed by God to bear seeds and help plants reproduce.  We are to bear fruit to help the gospel spread and grow.  If the church is healthy, it will bear fruit and spread.  Apparently, Epaphras was the man who brought the gospel to Collosae and then reported back to Paul and Timothy.  I find it important that Paul seems to indicate that the gospel didn’t grow in Collosae or around the world until it had been heard and understood.  This underscores to me the importance of discipleship.  Faith comes by hearing, but growth comes through understanding.  It is not enough to just tell people the good news of Christ’s sacrifice for us, we also have to help them understand the grace of God in truth. 

Paul then outlines his prayer for the Colossian church.  He prays that they would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.  This makes sense; we all want to know God’s will.  But what are our motives?  Paul seems to indicate that our reason for knowing God’s will is to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in knowledge of God.  We should want to know God’s will for our lives not for our benefit, but so that we would please God, bear fruit, and increase our knowledge of Him.  I know I personally feel like often I want to know God’s will so that I can know what my future holds or so I can prepare for the future.  My desire for knowledge of His will is partly for my own benefit.  We should know His will for His benefit.  Paul then asks that the Colossian church would be strengthened with all power according to God’s glorious might.  The purpose for this strengthening is for endurance and patience with joy.  Many times I think we ask God to help us avoid hardship or to give us want we want quickly.  What we need to ask for is strength so that we can endure and be patient with joy.  Along with this strengthening we should give thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints.  Once again, it appears that our focus should be on heaven.  It appears that Paul is praying that when hardship and persecution come, the Colossians would have strength to endure by thanking God for their salvation.  Once again, the focus should be on Christ and not the world.  We have been transferred from the domain of darkness to the kingdom of Christ, who has redeemed us.  This is huge!  We need to be careful to remember this and not focus on our earthly problems.  

Oil for the Lamp

Story:  Oil for the Lamp

Passage: Exodus 27:20-12

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the oil for the lamo.

  

Notes:  This is a very short passage about the oil to be used in the lamp.  However, since God thought it was important enough to specify, we will examine it.  The main thing specified here is that the oil is to be pure pressed olive oil.  Also, the lamp was supposed to always be burning.  The two things Aaron and his sons would have to do to keep the lamp burning were refill the oil and trim the wick.  I feel like this applies to our lives as well.  We are supposed to be the light in a dark world, and we are continuously trimmed and filled by God to do that!  I also think it is cool that the oil comes from pressed olives.  The olives are pressed and the result is they can burn bright.  I think this could be analogous to our maturing and growing through times when we are pressed.  In 2 Corinthians 4:8, the Greek word for pressed or troubled, depending on your translation, is the word used to describe pressed grapes.  We are also pressed and the result is we shine. 

Questions:  Why olive oil?  Why was it to be specifically pressed? 

Lessons:  It is encouraging to know that the moments we are pressed are intended for the glory of God.  It is when we are pressed that we shine brightest for Him.

The Court of the Tabernacle

Story:  The Court of the Tabernacle

Passage: Exodus 27:9-19

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the tabernacle court.

  

Notes:  I don’t have a ton to say about the court of the tabernacle.  It was a much larger area than the tabernacle itself.  The pillars around the court were to be made of bronze.  The curtains were to be blue, purple, and scarlet.  Silver was used in the support of the Tabernacle.  Once again, we see gold is not being used.  These items do not represent the Father, Son, or Spirit like the gold ark, table, and lamp stand do.  Of particular interest to me is verse 19.  All the utensils of the Tabernacle were to be made of bronze.  Bronze feels like a very human metal.  Its use in the Bible is linked to sin and sacrifice.  Unlike gold, bronze is not pure.  It is neither precious nor pure.  I feel like this makes it a good representative of humanity.  The fact that the utensils were made of bronze shows us the impurity of our sinful nature.  Unlike the items in the Most Holy Place or the Holy Place, these utensils are tarnished.  We have a need for redemption. 

Questions:  Why is bronze used outside of the Holy of Holies?

Lessons:  We are sinful and impure.  Just like bronze was not found in the Most Holy Place, our impurity cannot mix with the pure holiness of God.  We are sinful and are impure.  In the New Testament, Christ is killed by humans.  The pure and spotless lamb is slaughtered by impure humanity as a sacrifice for our atonement.  The bronze utensils in the Tabernacle are a beautiful foreshadowing of our ultimate redemption through Christ!

The Bronze Altar

Story:  The Bronze Altar

Passage: Exodus 27:1-8

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the bronze altar. 

  

Notes:  The altar was to be made of acacia wood.  It was not to be overlaid with gold however.  It was to be overlaid with bronze.  This was for practical reasons as well as aesthetic reasons I believe.  Bronze would not be affected by fire and thus it was a good choice to use on the altar.  We also see that bronze was already used for the curtain rings outside of the Holy of Holies.  Bronze seems to be the metal of choice in the Holy Place of the tabernacle.  The altar was to have four horns, one at each corner.  These horns would point all directions and symbolized what the blood of the sacrifice covered.  The atoning blood would be applied to all four horns.  The utensils for the altar were also made of bronze.  There was a bronze screen placed in the altar as well to allow the offerings to fall through the altar.  Basically, it was a hollow box with a screen, completely covered in bronze.  The Hebrew word for altar is derived from the word used to describe the slaughtering of animals for sacrifices or eating.  It was basically a killing place.  In Hebrews 13:10, we are told we have an altar from which those in the tabernacle have no right to eat.  The cross was the killing place where the perfect Lamb was sacrificed. 

Questions:  Why is bronze used outside of the Holy of Holies?

Lessons:  Christ is our sacrifice.  The cross was the altar He was sacrificed on.  Just as the horns of the altar reached out in all directions and showed how the atoning blood of the sacrifice covers us all, the cross also covers us all with the atoning blood of Christ!

The Tabernacle

Story:  The Tabernacle

Passage: Exodus 26

Characters:  God, Moses

Summary:    God gives Moses instructions for the Tabernacle. 

  

Notes:  I have been putting this post off because it is long and confusing and full of details which I was tempted to say are meaningless.  However, these details come straight from God so I am going to dive in and look at them.  God wanted Israel to build a tabernacle.  The previous three items were to be placed in the tabernacle.  I am going to list the things God specifically asked for and then if I have an idea of what they represent, I will try to communicate that.  Most of this is speculation unfortunately.  Here goes, the details of the tabernacle:

Dimensions -  God supplied specific dimensions for the cover, the curtains, and the frame of the tabernacle.  He even had enough detail to instruct what to do with overlap.  I believe He gave them the dimensions so they would know how much material they would need.  His structure is both solid, and portable.  It comes apart fairly easily for when they had to move around.  The basic design was that there was a room made of an elaborate colorful curtain covering a frame.  This was covered by a plain piece of material.  This was then covered by two more coverings made of watertight animal skin. 

Colors – God specified the colors to be used for the curtains.  They were to be blue, purple, and scarlet with images of Cherubim worked into them.  These same colors were used for the veil.  I did some research on the use of colors in the Bible and I may post that sometime.  Basically what I found was that blue represents the law, purple represents royalty, and scarlet represents both sin and cleansing.  I find it fascinating that if you were to be in the Holy of Holies with the Ark, you would be surrounded with gold, blue, purple, and scarlet.  You would be in a place where holiness, royalty, the law, and cleansing are all combined together.  This is a beautiful picture of the plan God had for humanity and it is communicated purely through the colors He specified for His Tabernacle. 

Clasp material – God specified the material of the clasps used to hold the curtains together.  The innermost curtain would have gold clasps and the next curtain would have bronze.  Obviously we see the continuation of gold being the only metal visible in the Holy of Holies.  This purity and holiness is really powerful if you think about it. 

Material of the curtains – The materials used from the inside out are, fine linen, goat hair, rams’ skins, and goatskins. 

Material of frames – The frames of the Tabernacle would also be visible from the inside and thus they were also acacia wood overlaid with gold. 

The veil material – The veil would be the same material as the curtains, but it would serve a different function.  The inside of the Tabernacle would be holy ground, but the Ark would be even holier.  The phrase “even holier” seems redundant.  How can something be more holy?  The point of this distinction is that God is infinitely more holy than we can comprehend!  God has us picture holiness, and then tells us He is even more holy than that.  The Ark which represents the presence and holiness of God is in the Most Holy Place.  This was the least accessible part of the Tabernacle.  A common person could only access God through the High Priest, and even he could only enter the Most Holy place once a year I believe. (We will read more about this later and I will edit this if I am wrong)  The holiness of God keeps us from Him.  We cannot survive being exposed to this Holiness without His mercy!  Because of this, I am fascinated by the positioning of the other pieces of furniture we have read about.

Position of the table and lampstand – If you remember, the lampstand seems to represent the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the table for the Bread of the Presence seems to represent the physical presence of God manifest in Christ.  We now know that the Spirit lives in us as Christians and guides us closer to God.  We also know now that Christ came to Earth and acted as our High priest.  He was the go between us and a Holy God.  As such, the Spirit and the Son are like the intermediaries through whom we can access the Spirit.  Thus the son and the Spirit are uniquely accessible to us in a way the holiness represented by the Father is not.  This is not to say that the Son and the Spirit are not holy, but rather that by God’s perfect design, this is the way He extends His mercy to us and allows us access to a Holy God.  Although these things were not fully understood in Moses’ time, we see that both the Table and the Lampstand are positioned outside of the Most Holy Place and are rather in the Holy Place.  As you can see, this communicates that these two are Holy, but accessible.  The Table is located just outside the veil, and when Christ was crucified, we read in the gospels that the veil was torn in two symbolizing that we now have access to the Father in ways that we never had before.  If you were to enter the temple after the veil was torn, you would see the Ark of the Covenant with the Table of the Bread of the Presence between you and the Ark.  I think this is a powerful picture of God’s plan for restoration of us to Him and it was all symbolized in the tabernacle in Moses’ day.

Questions:  Is this interpretation of the Tabernacle correct? Does it make sense?  What else is symbolized in the design of the tabernacle?

Lessons:  The Tabernacle shows us that from the beginning, God had a plan to restore us to Himself.  Take a moment and just worship the Holy God who loved us enough to restore us to Him even in the middle of our rebellion against Him!  Worship Him for His unchanging mercy and grace!